Trump's Fall From Love And Grace

By Walter Rhett, on August 4th, 2017

Is the joint proposed bill from Arkansas’ Tom Cotton, Georgia’s David Perdue and Trump to restrict legal immigration by cutting it in half and creating a language and financial means test a good idea? Ask any Alabama grower if this makes sense. After seeing millions in crops rotting in the fields and American workers walking off before 9 am, they would say no. California, Washington, and North Carolina are among the states experiencing severe farm labor shortages of crisis proportions. Nationally, production losses could run as high as $60 billion this year. Milk prices could jump 90%.

Immigration Has An Economic Upside

Harvesting Watermelons, 1930s.

Ask any of the farm workers who use hand harvesting to ensure quality for the American table at a reasonable cost. Their willingness to work long hours doing backbreaking work is the essence of the effort that is America’s promise.

Ask Midwest processing plants making foodstuffs, from meats to jams. In Kansas, openings for unskilled jobs paying $40K can’t be filled. Are Cotton, Perdue and Trump making law and policy by fantasy or fact?

Ask any minority: they will likely tell you, the bill’s promoters goals justify division, tyranny, and hate. Ask China: will this enable America to compete against its 60 country (60% of global GDP!), One Belt, One Road project?

Ask labor: why does Trump, who uses cheap immigrant labor in his own properties, discount and minimize the value of labor, esp. low-paying handwork?

Compare children in your next visit to Walmart. Who’s running around the store? Which ones are better behaved? Are their baskets full?

Affirming Whiteness

My daughter attended Dartmouth; her class had 62 African-Americans out of 1200; the percentage of African-Americans in the MBA program was even smaller than the 5 % of the undergraduate body where 1138 seats went to others! For those in the 95% to claim discrimination is absurd and oppressive. Trump simply wants to restrict and limit opportunities for ambitious youth to succeed/

Please America, stop spreading lies and myths without facts or proof! That denial is more racist than the discrimination it protects.

(The same is true for Trump’s claim of medical costs for transgender military personnel. Their costs is 1/10th of what the military spends on Viagra and ED treatments ($4M to $40M)!)

Denial discriminates! Lies mislead! Myths protect white privilege.

Your version of common sense lacks facts of college admissions! First, it is a bold lie that minority students are “underperforming.” Colleges also rank and admit students by their high schools and prep schools; so a “A” student at private prep Andover is given a higher ranking than a student at Atlanta’s public Booker T. Washington HS, even if they have the same grade averages and courses. Colleges review experiences; students from Andover are more like to travel to Europe, find internships in challenging labs than the students at Booker T., whose parents are low income. Colleges give preference to legacy applicants; an Andover student is more likely to have a legacy parent than one from Booker T.

The Booker T. student has not “underperformed,” (one of the most egregious lies pinned to affirmative action!), his environment, educational system, and circumstances of birth have taken away the opportunity for BOTH equal and meritorious consideration. These criteria factors track race! They handicap a student because of race. Affirmative action simply corrects the bias!

The facts: affirmative action “affirms” that given the opportunity, these students perform as well as others throughout their college careers, graduate at the same rate as their class–so the so-called myth of “underperformance” (which persists!) doesn’t show up when the playing field is leveled and opportunity is equaled. If you reach the finish line, you have performed at the required level!